American Cultural Heritage Reflected In Louisa May Alcott's Little Women

Louisa May Alcott, American woman writer in the latter half of the nineteenth century, is famous for her warmly-received novel Little Women. In the form of domestic diary, the novel tells the growing-up experiences of the four March sisters. Set in a small town in New England during American Civil War in the mid-nineteenth century, Little Women impresses readers with the social changes and cultural traditions of the American society at that time. This thesis attempts to elaborate the significance of American cultural heritage and its embodiment in the novel.The first chapter of this thesis introduces Alcott' s life, character and literary career. The second chapter summarizes the plot of the novel and then lists critical reviews of the novel. As a domestic novel and children' s literature, Little Women receives high praise and wins continuing popularity. However, its didactic tone, together with its over-simplification of characterization, is attacked by critics. Chapter three expounds the significance of culture, which is the reason why this thesis approaches Little Women from the cultural perspective. Culture is a dominant subject for literature; it definitely acts as a motive power of society, as a decisive factor in shaping people' s moral conception and way of life, and as a major influence on authors. The fourth chapter makes a detailed analysis of the American cultural heritage reflected in Little Women, covering various aspects of the nineteenth-century American culture including social reforms, the initiation of Feminism, the Puritan legacy, Transcendentalism, and literary traditions. Chapter five is the conclusion, summarizing American cultural heritage reflected in Little Women and pointing out the room for further research on this topic.